I recently spent a week at the bi-annual conference of parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 11) in Hyderabad, India, where more than 170 of the 193 signatories to the convention worked away feverishly until the early hours negotiating the heavy outcome document.

These discussions led to a doubling of developed country commitments to biodiversity, from $6bn (£3.8bn) to $12bn (£7.5bn) by 2015. But as I left Hyderabad, I wondered if I should be pleased or disappointed.

My recent work as chair of the High Level Panel, whose task was to estimate the amount of finance needed to meet the 20 Aichi targets agreed upon in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010, was among the inputs into the process now happening in India. However, our estimates of what was truly needed to achieve the targets were of a higher order of magnitude – higher than both the existing baselines and the commitments made. Will this $6bn increase make a difference when financing needs are really in the tens and hundreds of billions of dollars?

Biodiversity is the living fabric of this planet; its ecosystems, species and genes. Conserving biodiversity includes reducing forest losses and restoring forest cover to increase soil fertility (Aichi Targets #5 and #14), prevent droughts, mitigate flood damage, stop the spread of desertification and provide better livelihoods for the world's 1.3bn small farmers.

Increasing marine protected areas (part of Aichi Target #11) and increasing the stocks of fish in the sea, which provide the main source of animal protein for more than 1 billion people in the developing world, are just as important, as is controlling pollution (Aichi Target #8), which will not just reduce biodiversity loss but will improve human health, fresh water, agriculture, fisheries … the list goes on.

These Aichi targets are a large part of sustainable development for the world – no wonder that their financing is not small change.

The results of COP 11 discussions were not disappointing in themselves, but it was sad that the wider goals of sustainable development for which they are essential did not receive more urgent and widespread attention. Meanwhile, the need for transitioning to a "green economy" to deliver these goals grows more palpable and urgent every year.

The silos in which we all operate are part of the problem. Desertification and climate change fall under separate UN conventions, even though they are inextricably linked to the maintenance and restoration of ecosystems; the large-scale layer of biodiversity.

It can be difficult to see anything in perspective if one is immersed in it. Lucky for me, I had to fly from Hyderabad to Bhutan just after COP 11 to attend a conference of tiger range countries, organised by the World Bank's global tiger initiative.

I drove along the Paro river through mountain-flanked valleys from the airport to Thimphu, Bhutan's capital, and was greeted by legions of fluttering prayer flags dancing out their hymns to the drumbeat of a bracing mountain wind. Far below, the crystal waters of the Paro sparkled in rhythmic company, flashing clear Himalayan sunlight. Carpets of red chilies, carefully laid to dry on the low sloping tin roofs of Bhutanese homes, soaked in this bright hot sun.

In Bhutan, biodiversity is everywhere around you, abundant and healthy. People love it and respect it. This is the kind of world that all those Aichi targets seek to achieve, and it lives here for all to see.

Bhutan doesn't have billions of dollars to finance this biodiversity conservation. Instead, it is ingrained in the culture and history of the land. The country's constitution commits 60% of Bhutan to forest cover. At the conference, Lyonpo Dr Pema Gyamtsho, Bhutan's agriculture and forests minister, said: "There can be no justice unless other living beings have equal rights of existence on this planet."

We often hear of rights-based approaches to biodiversity conservation, but in Bhutan this is not just dreamy talk – it is visible reality.